(no subject)
My Into the Wild essay, decent if nothing else. havn't really read it through either :)
Zach Dugan
Mr. Sturm
Ms. Breezy
American Lit.
4 December 2005
Title
Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, chronicles the life of Chris McCandless. It focuses on McCandless’s last years of life, with flashbacks and stories from his childhood to help us understand McCandless as best we can. While growing up, McCandless came to love nature and believed in fighting against the evils of society. During college, McCandless withdrew into himself even more and went on long road trips over the summers. After college graduation Chris left on his last great venture, hitchhiking across the country, meeting real friends, canoeing down the Colorado River into the Gulf of California, and making his way to Alaska. It was in Alaska that Chris finally found peace and decided he was able to go home to share his happiness. Chris may not have learned enough about what he was doing, but he stayed strong, brave, and amicable throughout his journey. Thoreau and other Transcendentalists greatly influenced Chris, who came to live a Transcendentalist life.
Chris did not learn enough about Alaska once he decided to go. He discovered a book called “Tanaina Plantlore/Dena’ina K’et’una: An Ethnobotany of the Dena’ina Indians of Southcentral Alaska by Priscilla Russel Kari,” (Krakauer 160) after telling Stuckey “he wanted to go out to the university to study up on what kind of plants he could eat,” (159) and may have learned a good deal from that, but he ignored the verbal advice of others. Stuckey told him, “you’re too early. There’s still two foot, three foot of snow on the ground. There’s nothing growing yet.” (159) Many Alaskans criticized Alex for “entering the wilderness purposefully ill-prepared,” (71) “forgetting Boy Scout rule number one: Be Prepared,” (71) and “causing his parents and family such permanent and perplexing pain” (71). Even though Chris went to Alaska unprepared, he lived for “112 days” (199).
During his journey, his friendly demeanor made him many friends, even inspired others to follow his way of life. Westerberg became a friend, but another man is a more poignant example of Chris’s influence. Chris stayed with a man named Ron Franz for a few weeks. Franz saw him as a son and even asked Chris if he could adopt him. He became much attached to Chris, when Chris left “Franz found himself deeply and unexpectedly hurt” (56). Chris inspired Franz to live a more aesthetic life; he went and lived at Chris’s campsite at the hot springs. Franz discovered Chris’s death from two hitchhikers it struck him so much that when he learned what happened he “renounced the lord… I decided I couldn’t believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like [Chris]” (60). Chris’s influence over others is greater than he would ever know.
The heaviest items in Chris’s pack were his books. They were mostly Transcendentalist authors like Thoreau and Tolstoy. Chris lived by their philosophies of free will, going into nature, experiencing nature’s power, solitude, and thinking for yourself. His entire journey exemplified free will and thinking for yourself. He came into people’s lives and left them as he wanted. He traveled wherever he wanted, journeying down the Colorado River and hitchhiking to Alaska. His Alaska adventure forced him to live with and off nature. He only had “a ten-pound bag of rice” (5). Chris lived alone in Alaska; he did not see another human for 112 days. This gave him plenty of time for self-reflection. Chris’s biggest discovery and the one that was able to propel him home, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (189), is an important lesson from which we can all learn something.
Chris McCandless may not have been prepared enough to live off the land according to “real” Alaskans, but he did up until the day he decided to go home. The only thing that stopped him was a speeding river that he decided to wait for to slow down. His story has inspired and influenced countless others. His actions and attitudes inspired others like Franz before he even went to Alaska. Chris, at least for one stage of his life, was a modern Transcendentalist and lived according to those philosophies as far as someone in the 20th century could have. If nothing else, the fact that high school students across the country learn from Chris shows there is something special about him and the life that he led.
Works Cited (next page, centered)
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.